Tiny Treasury

It’s the Friday Fifteen! Today’s guest is illustrator Adam Rex.

I’ll own up to being a fan - both of my girls just love his illustrations in Amy Timberlake’s The Dirty Cowboy (my mom does, too!) - and the book won a ton of awards.

1. Where are you now?
Home. In the spare bedroom in my apartment in West Philadelphia that serves as my studio, typing into an old G3 iMac that’s been making this fried baloney smell whenever I ask it stream video. I really need a new computer.

2. What were your favorite books as a kid?
The Monster at the End of This Book
The Bike Lesson
Where the Wild Things Area
That’s just off the top of my head, trying not to think about it too much.

3. What are you reading now?
A collection of short stories selected by David Sedaris titled Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules.

4. Do you have kids?
No–why, what have you heard?

5. What projects are you working on now?
I’m finishing up the art for my novel, The True Meaning of Smekday, which will be released by Hyperion this September. I then have a new picture book to illustrate, and I’m writing monster poems.

6. What is your biggest writing or illustrating luxury?
When I have work that’s portable (basically, anything apart from painting), I like to take it to a local cafe, sit, drink coffee, eat pastries, get into heated political conversations with all the other authors and artists, and so forth.

7. Coffee or tea?
See #6

8. Name five artists on your iPod (or mp3 player).
I think I’m the only person left who doesn’t have one of these things. My wife even has one, but I don’t. But the last five CDs I played were by They Might Be Giants, Mew, The Shins, The Flaming Lips, and The Hold Steady.

9. What would I be surprised to know about you?
Hmm. Most people seem to be surprised that my wife is an astrophysicist. I’m not sure why–an artist and a scientist don’t seem any less compatible to me than, say, a doctor and accountant. Or a lawyer and a computer programmer. We each appreciate the other’s work, but she doesn’t draw and I don’t launch sub-orbital telescopes, so there’s no competition. I know couples who are BOTH artists, and I can’t imagine how that works.

10. What college did you attend (in what subject)?
The University of Arizona, where I got a BFA in Illustration. I was lucky to have kids’ author/illustrator avid Christiana there as one of my instructors.

11. If you weren’t working with kids’ books, what would your dream job be?
It’s hard to imagine not doing what I do. I suppose I always wish I had time to try my hand at animated shorts and films.

12. What’s the best thing on TV right now?
My cat, I suppose. Though she’s sleeping next to an old war photo of my Grandpa–that’s pretty good, too.

13. How did you get your “big break” into the field?
I’d been sending work out to a few interested editors for a long time, but one editor at FSG gave me my first picture book when I visited him on a trip up and down the east coast. I was still living in Tucson at the time, and had never met any editors face-to-face. It’s part of why I’m still a big believer that successes come more often when you shake hands and make eye contact.

14. Which celeb would you want most to meet?
Maurice Sendak? Will Ferrell? I don’t know. Meeting famous people you admire almost never ends up being the experience you want it to be.

15. Who is the best book character EVER?
I feel uncomfortable putting all my eggs in one basket, but “Ford Prefect” popped into my head before I really had a chance to think, so I’ll go with that.

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Thanks, Adam and we hope to hear back once Smekday is published!

(Psst, if you want to show your support, you can vote for this story here.)